https://youtu.be/h79AtRsyios

 

One of the beneficiaries of the news that the long form census has returned is Blue Sky Net.

They have a number of ways of correctly identifying the number of people receiving broadband services.

Executive Director Susan Church says they use a number of tools, including census information, to accurately reflect what is going on.

She says the latest information is about a year and a half behind and that’s important in letting Internet Service Providers know where the broadband service is and where it isn’t.

Church says it showed 72 per cent of households have access to adequate broadband services.

She says of the rest some have an internet connection that’s too slow or too expensive, so people don’t have it.

Church says they can learn how many people live in each community, what the broadband needs are for business and residential and it gives an accurate picture of the needs in rural Ontario.

She says the CRTC recently said 90 per cent of Canadian households have adequate access, but with an urban/rural divide, that number does not illustrate the challenges in rural communities.